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zoux posted:lower oil and gas prices could mean for the next budget. I'm going to assume lots of panicking, refusal to touch the rainy day fund, and yet more slashing of infrastructure while tossing out even more tax breaks to out of state businesses. Part of me misses the batshit crazy legislative session I lobbied with but the rest of me cowers in fear that these asshats keep getting elected.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:05
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zoux posted:Hegar is painting a pretty rosy picture, saying that Texas is fine economically and that they need more data points, need to know what the supplemental approps/LARs are like before they can nail down an accurate forecast. Has his hair caught on fire yet from all that?
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Jan 26, 2016 21:10
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zoux posted:I'm not enough of an economist to say if he's wrong or not. My feeling is that any kind of economic crisis is more likely to be regional than statewide, and we still have $8 bn+ in the ESF. Whether we'll use that money remains to be seen, but I'll point out the biggest obstacle to using rainy day fund money was Rick Perry. Good point; my kinfolk are out in west Texas so I suppose I have a more dismal view of the price of oil situation than other people. But that's still a huge budget shortfall that they're going to have to overcome, and I'm not sure how many tech jobs we'd have to import to be able to make up for it. I vaguely recall some of Abbott's positions on the ESF when the whole thing was going on and during the election, but I'm too lazy to look them up atm.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:18
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Zwabu posted:Those of you who have lived in TX a long time, what do you think the endpoint of the wing-nut-ization of Texas politics is? IS there one? Mostly outbreeding the idiot hicks, really. And even with that you're going to run in to the issue where the districts are sliced and diced with the urban areas being a giant blue middle finger of frustration in the sea of rural red.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:20
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zoux posted:Per Hegar today, the state has lost about 70k jobs across mining and production in oil and gas, it's added 100k non industry jobs in the same period. Any mention of how much those non-industry jobs were from transplants? Semi-legit question, actually. Mostly so I can complain more about immigrants showing up here in Austin and driving my drat rent up. Wonder what the hell they're going to be doing with all the hotels and shanties they built up during the boom out in Midland/Odessa.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:26
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zoux posted:Not sure but I will tell you that Austin has experienced 15% yearly growth over the last five years and the next three fastest growing cities in the country grew at 5%. I'm fully aware; it's also not just tech. There's been plenty of law school refugees from up north moving down here as well. Hell, maybe one of these days I'll get off my butt and actually start going to some of these meetings. We could organize a candidate around the "hit 'em over the head with a hammer, throw 'em down a hole" for city council.
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Jan 26, 2016 21:30
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Numlock posted:Rents are stupidly high in Houston right now and while I haven't done an exhaustive study the only places to rent I could find sub $950 a month were ghetto as hell slum holes. Californians?
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Jan 27, 2016 00:21
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Badger of Basra posted:So is Austin backing off TNC regulations because of a petition? I bet could get at least that many people to sign a pro-train petition! I'm sure the fact that the TNC petition having the backing of stuff like Uber and the like has absolutely nothing to do with why it's being listened to.
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Jan 29, 2016 21:50
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zoux posted:Perry's indictment got dropped. Color me surprised.
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Feb 24, 2016 18:31
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I'll admit, the puckish part of me wants to go for a Trump vote instead of a Bernie or Clinton one just to see the GOP devour itself from within.
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Feb 25, 2016 05:42
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zoux posted:They may not need any help there. True. But i'm actually considering voting in the Republican primary for Trump here in Austin just to see if my one vote'll be enough to gently caress over Cruz. It's not like we're going to go blue in the general, so why not see about weakening the field everywhere else?
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Feb 25, 2016 15:32
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Welp. An unexpected vet trip after work means that I'll be voting Tuesday instead of today. This is gonna be hellish. Still leaning towards throwing my vote away on Trump.
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Feb 27, 2016 06:49
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Oil! posted:I would have no problem with voting for Donald Trump if he included deporting all of Austin his platform. If he could build a wall around us to keep all of the California refugees out he'd have my vote.
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Feb 28, 2016 06:06
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ReidRansom posted:Yeah, sounds like a feature, not a bug. Depending on your area, of course. This. You cab schlep your way in to any voting location, right?
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Mar 1, 2016 21:33
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thatdarnedbob posted:Only during early voting, and only inside the same county you're registered in. On election day, you have your assigned precinct, and in general these aren't the same as any early voting locations. the VoteTravis website still says it's anywhere in the county for today. You can understand my confusion.
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Mar 2, 2016 00:06
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45 minutes in line so far, woo.
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Mar 2, 2016 02:29
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blue squares posted:Hillary has won already dude An hour and fifteen minutes. And i had actually put in some research on the down ballot folks. So should have everyone else. Don't tell me you waited in line just to click the president vote and skimmed through the rest.
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Mar 2, 2016 03:07
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Wulfolme posted:I tried to, but I found no information online, no difference between the Republicans that got a spot in the printed voter guide besides where they used to work and why that makes them the best, and half the drat positions here are just an unopposed Republican anyway. Reading over the Republican ballot proposal stuff while in line was a hoot.
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Mar 2, 2016 05:55
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soupcan58 posted:I'm curious but scared to know what they were. Texas should replace the property tax system with an alternative other than an income tax and require voter approval to increase the overall tax burden. Proposition 2: Texas cities and counties should be required to comply with federal immigration laws or be penalized by loss of state funds. Proposition 3: Texas should prohibit governmental entities from collecting dues for labor unions through deductions from public employee paychecks. Proposition 4: Texas and its citizens should strongly assert 10th Amendment Rights guaranteed by the US Constitution which states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”.
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Mar 2, 2016 18:14
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soupcan58 posted:Wait, what? Last I saw, Sanders had taken Travis county. The five Democrat ones were just softball ones. Anyone going to the precinct voting thing on the 16th? I kind of miss doing the Texas Two Step truth be told. Not sure why they moved it.
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Mar 3, 2016 17:33
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Thermos H Christ posted:Travis County GOP Chairman Rob Morrow is a gift that is going to keep on giving, I think. What fresh unwashed hell is this?
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Mar 3, 2016 20:37
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Thermos H Christ posted:There's a party across the aisle gently caress this green earth
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Mar 3, 2016 23:04
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Badger of Basra posted:http://www.texastribune.org/2016/03/07/texas-asks-journal-changes-womens-health-study/ We have always been at war with Eurasia.
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Mar 9, 2016 16:51
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zoux posted:https://twitter.com/lmcgaughy/status/707953232652316672 Aaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahaha
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Mar 10, 2016 23:30
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Bring back whale oil.
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Mar 19, 2016 01:56
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an iksar monk posted:Also it does not help that our state constitution is a just a few paragraphs long with about 700 or so contradicting amendments stuck to it. Just a big,convoluted, byzantine mess that no wants to fix. This is the same state government where one of our governors barricaded himself in his office to keep out the anti-carbetbagger mobs so we stapled on an amendment somewhere to give the real authority to the guy beneath him. And we've just rolled with it for a hundred plus years. We're basically that village from Fiddler on the Roof. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V2lxFWBqfI TRADITION!
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Apr 15, 2016 04:10
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blackguy32 posted:So b apparently Austin is voting on uber fingerprinting? I guess they are intending on fooling people since it's obvious that uber won't leave Austin even if it does have to fingerprint, especially since Houston already requires it gently caress Uber. e_angst posted:I've heard some of the Uber supporters try to claim that they really will leave like they are threatening, because "they left Midland and Galveston!" 
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Apr 26, 2016 13:13
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Badger of Basra posted:It doesn't help that the ballot language is super confusing. I voted yesterday and I'm only 90% I voted the way I meant to. That's a feature, not a bug.
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Apr 26, 2016 15:14
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DangerZoneDelux posted:I know this starts a long debate every time but what are the alternatives to Uber? When I'm traveling for work it's a life saver. I remember being in NYC standing out in the rain with a ton of translation equipment about 10 years ago and having no luck hailing a cab, when I called to try to get one to my location they said they only would take me to the airport. Sometimes it's not in the budget to have a car service especially when half of the work I'm doing involves non profits. The taxis sucked in New York City, a place known for having a ton of taxis. So any Texas city would benefit from the option of Uber, it's not like public transportation is great in our cities. It's not banning Uber. There will be no Texas Rangers ruthlessly pursuing people giving other people a ride in their car. It's just requiring a loving background check before you can operate as an independent contractor. Don't buy in to the marketing/politicking. Fuckers already ponied up a hundred million to settle a similar question elsewhere. They can spend a little more here.
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Apr 26, 2016 22:49
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I like one of the tweeted responses about how it would have been cheaper to just fingerprint everyone and be done with it.
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Apr 30, 2016 02:09
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Mitsuo posted:Oh hey, discovered this thread as I sort through the literal dozen glossy mailers that Ridesharing PAC has sent to me since I last got my mail. Immediate instinct is to vote No. gently caress. Uber.
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May 5, 2016 23:56
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Which one's the gently caress UBER option? No, right?
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May 7, 2016 21:31
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gently caress UBER vote successfully cast, eagerly awaiting the final result.
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May 8, 2016 00:38
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Automatic Slim posted:This is a likely scenario. Unless they just wait to come back with driverless autos. I wonder what kind of regulatory mine field that will be like? That's my guess as well - hadn't Google and Uber partnered up on an initiative for that recently?
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May 8, 2016 05:26
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Badger of Basra posted:Apparently there were fewer FOR votes than petition signatures lmao Which just makes the whole "WAH WAH ONLY 5% OF THE CITY SPOKE WAAAAH NOT REALLY DEMOCRACY!" thing funnier. Like, seriously. I thought everyone knew that if you pestered a Texan like they have been doing our default response is to go "no, gently caress off, gently caress you, gently caress everything you hold dear".
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May 8, 2016 05:39
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Why yes I'm quite happy that I helped poo poo in the VC/Uber punchbowl why do you ask?
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May 9, 2016 19:24
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VH4Ever posted:The reasons are many and really if people are going to make glib comments without even lazily looking into the reasons Uber and Lyft were so needed here, maybe they should just save their breath and their efforts typing their precious thoughts up. The fact is services like these drop the instances of DUI, they add to a woefully inadequate public transportation and cab system, and for a city as known for drinking and partying as we are, it was an integral part of life here. This pissing match, as usual, gets us all nowhere and just covers everyone in piss. What about an rear end in a top hat Austinite criticizing stupid Austinites? Is that still cool? Because I'm glad that I helped poo poo in the VC punchbowl, and I'm enjoying the techbros not understanding that we see them as Martians showing up here attempting to terraform the city.
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May 9, 2016 23:23
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VH4Ever posted:Can someone please tell me what the gently caress this metaphor about Martians terraforming the city means? Maybe I'm just too dumb and it's flying over my head but can you humour me anyway and explain what the gently caress that means? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlKL_EpnSp8 litany of gulps posted:This is the real issue, I think. Why is the cab system inadequate if there's such huge demand for cabs? Why has the cab system not grown to accommodate this demand? If the answer is "Uber and Lyft hijacked that growth," won't the obvious solution implement itself in the form of the existing cab companies that are willing to follow local rules expanding? The cab situation basically boils down to "it's more profitable to ferry people to and from the airport or around the downtown area than it is to drive out to the other parts of the city", so they're picking and choosing their fares. Part of this could be solved by 1) putting in a spur from the metro out to the loving airport and 2) having the loving metro actually run regularly and not shut down once it starts to get dark. It's not inadequate, it's just that it's more expensive because it can be on account that you don't have someone basically committing insurance fraud driving around for pocket-change while lining the pockets of a company that keeps acting like it's a start-up when it's really a monopoly. Or you could own a car like a functional adult. Or designate a DD if you're out and about with a group of friends. And pay THEM to drive you around. Badger of Basra posted:I'm glad all these people saying we need Uber because CapMetro is poo poo are going to start advocating for better public transport now! If I understand properly, part of the city planning ideas behind the lovely parking downtown is to make people not want to/be able to drive downtown and thus increase demand for public transportation. *EDIT* VH4Ever posted:Hah. OK, I caught myself. Not long, and the second I thought about it I got it. Touche. Not sure how Uber/Lyft fit in though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2pGBv9Ly6A citybeatnik fucked around with this message at 23:37 on May 9, 2016 |
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May 9, 2016 23:34
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Wikkheiser posted:I love Uber & Lyft ... as a consumer. I think that's a valid critique of it, speaking as an Austin native. You're seeing the hippies fight against the techies - why the gently caress should I support something that lines the pockets of a corporation, let alone one that spent over eight million on an issue? They should have spent that money on something better, like bribing politicians as God intended. Badger of Basra posted:That's correct but if you're going to do that you need to make it so people can use public transportation to get out of downtown at night, not just get into downtown during the early evening. Oh I'm with you on that. Austin has a real NIMBY problem, but, again, I don't see why the solution to that is to fellate some outside company that's enforcing the gig-economy. *EDIT* VH4Ever posted:Why does everyone assume regular users of Uber and Lyft don't own cars "like functional adults?" I own a car and I've used Uber more than once. Sometimes I would Uber to the airport from work when I was flying out of town on a work night, or to and from a shop when my car was being worked on and I couldn't wait for the courtesy shuttle. Or uh, the very real problem of just telling people to get DDs doesn't make it so, just like telling teenagers not to gently caress won't make it so. People will be idiots and drive drunk, and now even more of them will. That could affect my life, or yours, no matter how much you and folks like you want to ignore than. But please, keep accusing all Uber users of being entitled millennials without cars, it's so helpful to the issue at hand. Speaking as an entitled millennial, you're part of the problem.  (But, seriously, proper public transportation to and from areas would also help cut down on drunk driving, but DWIs are also big business for the state. I could go in to more detail on that if you'd like.) citybeatnik fucked around with this message at 23:46 on May 9, 2016 |
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May 9, 2016 23:41
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VH4Ever posted:How do you immediately peg me as an entitled millennial? You don't even know me. I'm way too cynical to be confused with a Millennial. I just have a low tolerance for repeated bullshit in politics. Oh, I can't say for certain whether you're an entitled Millennial or just a prick; I was speaking about myself being one. And Texas might start giving a real poo poo about drunk driving if they weren't able to rake in a poo poo-ton of extra money every year for all the people with one on their record paying out the rear end in a top hat to be able to drive again. It's quite an inventive system.
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May 9, 2016 23:56
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